S-Video Converters

[jntaylor63]

My SVHS camcorder just bit the dust. I was using its s-video out to my wintv pvr250 to capture my old home videos.

I really don't want to go out and by a 100 S-VHS VCR. After a finish these tapes, I won't be using it that much. (DVR and Digital Camcorder.)

Does anyone know about a good converter? Monster Cable makes a passive one, but its more than the SVHS VCR.

I have seen another passive one that sperates the Y and C signals. Any thoughts?

[olyteddy]

Use the RCA input if the tapes you're encoding are standard VHS. The S-Video input won't help.

[FulciLives]

Using a S-VHS VCR and the S-Video output will help the image quality in only some circumstances.

It will help if:

1.) The tape being played back is a commercially made pre-record VHS or S-VHS video
2.) The tape being played back is a VHS or S-VHS video that was made on a S-VHS VCR using the S-Video input.

If the tape is a VHS video that was recorded using RF or composite inputs then using S-Video output will not give better quality and may in fact make it worse. I believe that (knock on wood) this also applies to a S-VHS recording where the input used was the RF or composite inputs. When playing back such a S-VHS recording I would do sample encodes/recordings using the composite output then the S-Video output in order to see which gives better quality.

However having said this I should point out that often times a S-VHS VCR is of better quality than a VHS VCR and will produce better output just due to the fact of it having better image processing etc. but this should not be confused with S-Video output always being better as it has a lot to do with how the tape was created/recorded.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[lordsmurf]

A converter won't do any good. The comb filter and the s-video circuitry inside a unit are far more important than the wire connection itself.

[edDV]

My SVHS camcorder just bit the dust. I was using its s-video out to my wintv pvr250 to capture my old home videos.

I really don't want to go out and by a 100 S-VHS VCR. After a finish these tapes, I won't be using it that much. (DVR and Digital Camcorder.)

Does anyone know about a good converter? Monster Cable makes a passive one, but its more than the SVHS VCR.

I have seen another passive one that sperates the Y and C signals. Any thoughts?

I'm confused so please help

"My SVHS camcorder just bit the dust." -- OK so you are left with S-VHS tapes to capture?

"(DVR and Digital Camcorder.)" -- you have a DVR and D8 or MiniDV camcorder?

"Does anyone know about a good converter?" -- converter from what to what? You need a S-VHS player to play S-VHS tapes.

"I have seen another passive one that sperates the Y and C signals. Any thoughts?" -- This doesn't relate to S-VHS tapes in any way. Y/C separation is always a filtering process. Your tapes are already Y/C. What do you mean by passive?

[The_Doman]

"I have seen another passive one that sperates the Y and C signals. Any thoughts?" -- This doesn't relate to S-VHS tapes in any way. Y/C separation is always a filtering process. Your tapes are already Y/C. What do you mean by passive?

He probably means something like this:
Composite Video into S-Video Converter.
But not really worth to spend much money on that.
You would be better of to get a old (broken) S-Video VCR or something like that.

[edDV]

Composite to S-Video converter means you go into the PVR-250 as composite and let the PVR-250 separate Y/C.

BUT you can't play a S-VHS tape on a VHS player. If you do you are adding major noise. VHS uses diffferent FM modulation than S-VHS.

[louthewiz]

I have used the s-video to rca adapter and the image looks the same.Lou

[jntaylor63]

Sounds like I won't get anything out of using a converter. I just remember using composite in put and it looked washed out.

By "DVR and Digital Camcorder" I mean that my old and busted VCR and VCR camcorder is going the way of the dinosaur and I don't want to drop 100 bucks on a SVHS VCR.

[edDV]

SVHS encoding is not playable on a VHS deck.

Rent or borrow a S-VHS deck to capture these remaining tapes.